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Published on July 4, 2007

The move is among recent state efforts to accommodate special needs of Malay-Muslims in the region, where an ongoing insurgency has claimed more than 2,300 lives since January 2004.

The initiative will cost the government Bt107 million a year, he said.

For the past two years, about 300 public schools in the provinces have been in a pilot project that has Islam, along with Malay and Arabic languages, taught alongside secular subjects. There are almost 2,000 public schools in the five provinces.

At the moment, all the Islamic teachers, known locally as ustaz, are hired on a temporary basis and are not entitled to civil-servant benefits.

Now, ustaz can become fully-fledged government employees and are entitled to the same benefits as state-school teachers.

Besides Islamic teachers, the Cabinet approved the appointment of deputy village chiefs in charge of security, Yongyuth said.